by April White
The fire escape was an old kind, probably put on during one of the World Wars, which meant I needed to be more monkey than human to climb it. I huddled on the balcony trying not to shiver as I laced up my boots, then grabbed the ladder and climbed down as far as I could go. It was stuck of course, probably rusted in place, so the last drop was about fifteen feet. I climbed down to the bottom rung and dangled from it, which made my drop closer to nine feet. Except it wasn’t.
I let go and got ready to tuck and roll for impact, but found myself caught in strong arms instead. I barely stifled a scream, half-expecting to see Slick grinning evilly at me. But it was Archer.
“What the hell?” I demanded in a whisper. Archer put his finger to his lips. The sound of an exterior door closing had our full attention.
“Come,” he whispered. He set me down gently and ran for the woods. I had to sprint at full speed to catch up with him. Archer led me deep into the trees, dodging branches and jumping rocks like he’d been free-running his whole life. I didn’t think Victorian gentlemen were into that sort of thing. But I had to admit, it felt really good to run. I was free of all the stone walls that had been trapping me since I got to England.
He finally stopped in a little clearing completely surrounded by tall trees. It was a tiny meadow that glowed silver in the nearly full-moonlight. I had to bend double to catch my breath before I could speak, but he hadn’t even broken a sweat. I stared at Archer. “Why are you here?”
“For you.”
That startled me and I deflected. “How can you be here? Did you go through the spiral too?”
He winced a little. “It’s complicated, Saira.”
My guts did a little half-twist at the way he said my name. When did I become such a girl? “Tell me anyway.”
And then he deflected. “So you’ve had no word of your mother?”
His words felt like a punch and I shook my head. “What happened after I left…Whitechapel Station?” The conversation was starting to sound surreal and I knew I was just going to have to roll with it.
“A crowd had gathered around our fight, and pandemonium broke out.”
I stared at Archer. “Did I just disappear in front of a bunch of people’s eyes?”
He smirked slightly. “The few people who actually did see you wink out seemed to disappear fairly quickly themselves, rubbing their eyes and looking dazed. No, the melee was caused by the Ripper himself. When you vanished, he suddenly went charging past me to the platform where he knocked several people down onto the tracks.”
I stared at Archer in horror. I’ve always shuddered at the idea of falling in the way of a train. It’s why I’ve never tagged a rail station. “Was anyone hurt?”
He shook his head. “We got them out before the next train came through. But that time cost me the Ripper.”
“And my mom?”
“She was gone.”
I whispered, almost to myself. “And she hasn’t come back.”
Archer took a step closer to me and his eyes bored into mine with the intensity of his gaze. “Then go find her.” He was inches away from my face and I couldn’t move or look away.
My voice cracked with the desperation I felt. “But I don’t know anything! I don’t even know if I can go back.”
Archer wouldn’t let me look away. “I can help you, but you have to trust me.”
“I don’t understand any of this. I don’t know what I can do, or why you’re even here. I don’t even know you, but you keep showing up in my life. Why?”
Archer’s eyes were locked on mine. “Before that night I had my studies to keep me occupied and I was satisfied enough to dig into anything about the Immortals that I could find. And then I met you.” He sounded agonized. I was afraid to even twitch in case I broke the spell that held us there. “Falling for a Clocker from the future shattered my careful peace and left me vulnerable to things I’d never imagined.”
I took a step backward from the anger and pain in his voice and Archer finally broke his gaze and turned away from me. My insides were twisted up in a rats’ nest of emotion. Shock, excitement, terror – they all pretty much felt the same and my automatic response was fight or flight.
Which was probably a good thing. A sudden crash in the underbrush put us both on high alert. Archer grabbed me and pulled me behind him protectively and I practically jumped out of my skin when a big stag leapt through our clearing. I sagged against Archer in relief as the stag took one look at us and jumped away, but he was still coiled. A dog barked behind us and a man’s voice called out in the distance. “He’s got ‘em!”
“Run!” Archer whispered fervently to me. I looked into his eyes. There was terror in them and I was instantly back to being prey. “I’ll draw them away. Get to the school!” He pushed me away from him and suddenly growled in the direction of the dog’s bark. It was a sound I’d never heard a person make and it raised goose bumps on my arms. I took off running.
I moved by pure instinct. Over a rock, up a fieldstone wall, across a log. The woods around me faded into the background as obstacles came into pin-sharp focus. I heard voices behind me, and a commotion coming from the direction of the little glen just as I broke out of the woods. I found myself on a different side of St. Brigid’s than the one I’d left.
There was no fire escape but I spotted a second floor balcony with a decent-sized tree close enough to be a viable option. I scrambled up the trunk, thankful for long-sleeves and boots. The tree was pretty easy to climb once I was up in the branches, and it was just a matter of getting as high and far over as I could without breaking any of them.
In the distance I heard a car peeling out at full speed and I felt sick in the pit of my stomach. Whatever was going on in the woods, Archer was out there with no back-up. I debated jumping down and going back out there after him, but realized how stupid that was. Somehow Archer had gotten here, so he clearly had skills I wasn’t aware of.
I sat still for a moment and allowed my brain to process what Archer had said to me in the meadow. The idea that The Ripper had gotten away from Archer was horrifying enough. That he had almost killed people in the train station to do it was unthinkable. And where was my mother during all this? And why had she been in Whitechapel station in 1888 in the first place?
The cold finally ate through the body heat I’d managed to generate running. I realized I’d actually been running away from Archer and the intense feelings he laid on me as much as from the hunters and dogs. I shivered again. Okay, time to move.
The coast seemed clear enough and I found a fairly sturdy branch reaching out toward the second floor balcony. It was easier to walk it than to crawl, and in less than a minute I was across. I was able to swing over to the wall and use it to help pull myself up and over the railing of the balcony.
I stayed low on the balcony for a second, partly to catch my breath, but also to look for anyone who might have seen me. Nothing moved outside the mansion, so I stood up to try the door.
And looked right into a huge pair of eyes.
Fortunately, the eyes were just as startled to see me as I was to see them. “Crap!” I whispered to myself as I dropped back down below the level of the windows. Which was a stupid thing to do and didn’t change the fact that some guy was standing on the other side of the glass. I took a deep breath and stood back up again. The guy was still there, but the shock on his face had been replaced with a smirk.
I actually wanted to punch him just for his expression. This from someone who does everything she can to avoid a fight and the attention it brings. What was wrong with me?
To cover up my reaction I put on the same cocky attitude the guy had. My eyebrows raised as if I was saying, “So, what?” and I tried the door. Locked of course. So I pointed at the handle. “Open it.” I mustered as much arrogance as I could. He considered me for a moment through the window and then held up a key.
“With this?” He mouthed, through the glass. Bastard.
“No, with your superpowers
, idiot!” I rolled my eyes and leaned against the railing with my arms crossed in front of me.
The guy laughed at me. “What will you give me?” I couldn’t hear his voice but the words were clear enough.
I stuck my middle finger in the air in a very unladylike gesture. One I’m sure Millicent would have disapproved of with every fiber of her being.
The guy laughed again and made a show of pocketing the key. I narrowed my eyes at him and tried to look as threatening as I could manage. Suddenly I heard the crunch of gravel under tires coming from the front of the house. I whipped around to see what was coming, but caught only the shadow of headlights.
The balcony door clicked open and hands grabbed me from behind. “Come on.” The guy’s voice was low and he spoke directly into my ear. He propelled me inside and quickly locked the door behind me.
We were at the end of a hall in an unfamiliar wing of the school. I turned to face him and barely had time to register what he looked like before he spoke. “The Crow’s new roommate?” I nodded. ‘The Crow.’ A perfect name for Raven.
“Let’s go. Before they do a room check.” He took off at a run down the hall and I jogged behind him to catch up. My guide was tall, probably 6’3”, with sandy blonde hair that fell to almost shoulder-length. He was wearing sweats and a Pink Floyd T-shirt that looked like it was from the 80s. It was the kind of shirt I would have slept in and probably so did he.
Floyd, named in honor of his shirt, led me down an odd little back corridor to a set of service stairs. He stopped suddenly, and then did the weirdest twitch. He looked around him for a second and pulled off his T-shirt, then used the shirt to cover his hand from the heat of two light bulbs in a wall sconce as he unscrewed them. The staircase was plunged into darkness, which didn’t seem to bother Floyd at all as he continued up the staircase. I hugged the outer edge of the wooden steps, aware of every creak and groan Floyd’s feet made. If he was so worried about being seen, he might have been a little more careful about being heard.
He paused at the top of the stairs to pull his T-shirt back on and grinned as I looked away, vaguely uncomfortable at the sight of toned abs and rippled shoulders. The guy reminded me of a surfer from Venice Beach, about as out of place at a boarding school in England as someone could get. The smirk on his face was totally consistent with surfer-arrogance and he annoyed me all over again with his attitude.
“Come on, Clocker. Before they find out you’re not in bed.”
I stopped in my tracks and stared at Floyd through narrowed eyes, hoping my shock didn’t show. “What did you call me?”
“Sshh!” He put a finger to my mouth and almost seemed to cover my body with his. A door opened down the hall and someone looked out of their room. I thought my pounding heart would give us away, but the head disappeared back inside the room and the door closed softly.
I let out the breath I’d held but Floyd held his hand over my mouth. I hate that! The door opened again quickly, as if the room occupant hoped to catch someone sneaking by. But after another moment, it closed again with a firm click and the pressure against my lips relaxed. I glared at Floyd fiercely. He shrugged. “Radar’s the worst one. Unless she’s drinking, she can hear a mouse fart.” His whispered voice was inches from my ear. I pushed him away from me harder than I meant to. He nearly lost his balance and caught himself against the wall in surprise.
“Tell me how to get back then so you don’t have to get in trouble too.” My whisper was laced with as much venom as I could muster. Floyd grinned at me again and shook his head.
“I won’t get in trouble. But thanks for caring.”
I rolled my eyes. Seriously? He led the way down a different corridor, up some creaky stairs to the fourth floor, across an outer hallway, then back down. I recognized a portrait of a glaring old guy and realized we were just outside my room. Floyd grabbed my hand before I could touch the door handle.
“Boots!” I looked down at my feet, mystified. “The Crow will know you’ve been out.”
“Right.” Our voices were quiet whispers and I dropped down to untie the laces and pull off my combat boots. Floyd dropped down next to me and his eyes caught mine.
“Check the Crow’s phone. You’ll need something on her to keep her in line.”
My eyebrows arched up in surprise. “Thanks.” I meant it. Until he smirked.
“No worries. I like it when hot girls owe me.”
Ew.
I stood up quickly and held my boots behind my back as I opened the bedroom door and slipped inside. Floyd was already gone by the time I’d closed the door. I quietly set my boots down on the floor next to my bed and let my eyes adjust to the darkness of the room. I could hear Raven’s regular breathing and hoped that meant she was still asleep.
I slipped across the room to the window. A truck was parked outside and the floodlights were on at the front of the school. I could see a dog and an empty gun rack inside the truck. Great. I could only hope Archer had gotten away from whoever had been hunting in the woods tonight. I shook my head. I couldn’t allow myself to think of Archer yet, I still needed to get information on Raven. For all his attitude, Floyd was right. Raven needed a leash. Her phone was next to her on the nightstand and I was able to reach it without making a sound. Texting history was first, to somebody named “chaotic1.” Apparently about me.
“new roomie. bitchy.” Nice. Thanks.
“family?”
“don’t know.”
“find out.”
Okay, whoever chaotic1 was I didn’t like. And as enlightening as the conversation was, it wasn’t ammo. I scrolled around Raven’s phone some more but didn’t find anything that made sense until I got to her pictures. The first one was of an open suitcase. My open suitcase! She had opened my bag and photographed the contents.
She’d found the locked box in my hoodie, took pictures of my spray paint cans, and even an Underground London book that somehow made it into my bag. Unbelievable!
My first instinct was to delete the pictures, but then I realized the threat of exposing her blatant snooping might be enough to keep her in line. I quickly e-mailed the photos to myself and put the phone down before making my way back to my own bed. Exhaling in relief, I sat, just as the sound of the truck engine echoed outside. Raven startled awake at the noise.
“What was that?” She immediately took in my seated and dressed state. “Where were you?”
“Asleep. The noise woke me up.” I tried to make my voice crackly and sleepy. I didn’t have to try hard.
“Why are you dressed?” She asked, suspiciously.
“Fell asleep with my clothes on. What time is it?” Raven reached for her phone to flip it open and read the clock. “3:30.” She set the phone down again, apparently not wondering why it was warm.
I swung my legs under the covers and settled them over myself. I rolled away from Raven to face the wall, pretending to drift off to sleep. I could hear her moving around in her bed restlessly, and held my breath when I heard her reach for her phone again and start texting. Finally, she closed it and settled back down to sleep. It was a long time before I could do the same.
Lock Down
Raven poked me the next morning. I felt like I’d been kicked in the head and I wasn’t in a great mood. “What’s your problem?” I sounded practically Welsh with all the gravel in my voice.
“Breakfast ends in ten minutes. You’re welcome.” Raven flounced out of the room in a huff. I cracked my eyelids open just as she left and caught a glimpse of a denim mini skirt, striped tights and some kind of sweater. Painfully stylish and probably really expensive. I was perversely glad to see her style was totally different than mine because the more I knew about my roommate, the less I liked her.
I got up and dragged my suitcase out from under the bed. The box was still wrapped up where I’d left it and I realized if the Crow was so nosy, it was only a matter of time before she found the key. I dug it out of the pocket of the green silk dress and strung it on a cord
I kept wrapped around my drawing pencils. I put it on like a necklace and it dropped low enough into my shirt to be invisible.
As much as I wanted to open the box and check out the map again, I was starving, so I pulled on my uniform of jeans, combat boots, my Amp’dGear T-shirt and a clean hoodie. Then I quickly braided my hair down my back and headed down to breakfast.
Luckily I had found the dining hall the night before and knew my way because I just barely made it before they took the food off the buffet. I grabbed toast, eggs and sausage and sat at a long table to eat.
“Didn’t your mother ever tell you to chew your food or you’d get a stomach ache?” I looked up to see Olivia smirking at me. She was holding a piece of sausage and parked herself on the bench across from me.
“Sorry, I didn’t eat yesterday.”
“I figured it had to be something because the food here’s not that great. How was your first night with Raven?”
“She went through my bags before I got there and only tolerates me because she thinks Millicent’s money is mine. But she’s already starting to turn on me, so I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until one of us is in tears.” I grinned and Olivia laughed.
“I told you she was a piece of work. You could probably talk to Simpson about getting moved, but I don’t know if they’d open another room just for you.”
“What is it with this place? It’s huge, but it seems deserted.” I looked around the nearly empty dining hall where I saw a couple of younger kids, maybe 10 or 11 years old, and a group of 15-year-old boys horsing around on their way out. “The way Millicent talks about this place you’d think it was the most exclusive school in England.”
“It probably is. It’s why the two wings are closed off. Not enough bodies to fill it.”
“It can’t be that exclusive. I’m here, aren’t I?”
Olivia laughed. “You and me, both. Actually, when Miss Simpson got here about ten years ago she made it possible for a whole new group of kids to come. But families have been pulling their kids out right and left, especially in the last three months. At the rate they’re dropping, I’d be amazed if the school can stay open next year. With the kids goes the money, which means my scholarship dries up too. I’m sure Raven informed you of that the instant I was out of the room last night.”